


Christmas Socks

by Corseque



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Christmas, Disappointment, Gen, Gifts, baby!ignoct, babyignoct, maybeslightbabyignoct
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-27
Updated: 2019-12-27
Packaged: 2021-02-26 06:28:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,414
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21988819
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Corseque/pseuds/Corseque
Summary: Time's running out and Ignis is about to make the biggest sacrifice a child could this holiday. And it's about Noct.
Relationships: Noctis Lucis Caelum/Ignis Scientia
Comments: 9
Kudos: 41





	Christmas Socks

**Author's Note:**

> Please be gentle. it's my first posted fic! I hope you'll like and enjoy it.

Countless. That was the best way that he could describe how many times that it had happened. Ignis tugged at his trousers, lifting it up slightly for him to take a peek at his feet. Barely rest assured, he felt that it looked abit obvious to him. Maybe a little TOO obvious.

“Ma-Maybe I’d be able to fake this,” he thought to himself, “all it takes might be a little more faith.” As long as he acted natural, he was sure that he could get away with it. But this could, still, only last for so long.

He heard familiar footsteps coming closer. Quickly straightening his pressed tan pants, the 8 year-old hurried over to his study table to pick out a book. He was cautious to remind himself to never to sit down.

“Ignis?” The boy peered up from his textbook, slowly flipping a page while keeping his composure.

“Yes, mother?”

“What’s this I’ve been hearing about?” His mother paused for a moment for a chance to hear it from her son. However, when all she got was a blank stare through the over-sized square glasses, she sighed and showed Ignis the items of concern, “it seems that we’ve been finding a lot more of this lately…”

Had it not for his numerous training, his heart would have surely jumped out of his mouth. He knew. He knew the reason. He was there when it happened. Clear as day. But snitches end up in ditches and, besides, he knew it was not intentional. Her son shrugged his shoulders and hoped she would take his word and let it slide. Even with her hardest stare and interrogation, he could only insist on his innocence, that he had not the slightest clue, and that it might have been misplaced after cleaning. Thankfully after nothing more than a stern warning and a reminder of how “every single one of them would amount to a lot money”, he was left alone to his studies. No matter how much he tried, it was clear that he had only achieved in flipping pages.

He was clear of what this encounter had proven to him:

He was running out of time.

-//-//-//-//-//-

Come next day, Ignis rose from bed early to dress up in his Sunday’s best (or whatever he could make of it) before anyone came into his room. He made sure to wear one of this longer trousers, which he was supposed to ‘grow into them’, and folded the bottom lower than usual. Still, no matter how he did it, it still made him feel self-conscious and could not help but feel… different. Anywho, he intended to dress to impress and that was exactly what he did, especially since he was about to make the biggest sacrifice a child could this holiday.

Once again, it was that time of the year when King Regis would invite the children of the Citadel staff over to join Prince Noctis for the Christmas celebrations. He figured that since Noctis was usually always by himself, it would do him good to mix and mingle with other children to develop his social skills. Ignis had been told by his parents that His Majesty had invited Santa again this year. They added that because King Regis and Santa were long time best friends, Santa had agreed to arrive a bit earlier than the usual Christmas Eve to give out presents to the children.

Like Ignis would believe _that_.

Ignis waited in quietly in line with the rest of the children. While they were excitedly discussing what they were going to ask Santa for, Ignis was going through his lines over and over again in his head, hoping that he would get them perfectly. He knew that it did not matter what they wished for or whether Santa had it in the giant bag of his. It was already pre-determined what they would get.

By pure chance, he had accidentally been hiding in one of the rooms during hide-and-seek with Noctis, when the citadel staff came in to prepare the present. Unfortunately, they had spotted the young advisor and promptly sent him away before he had a peek at his. And even if he was not that lucky, he still could not understand how the rest of the children could be so clueless. It was THAT obvious.

Finally his name was called. Ignis clenched his tiny clammy hands, taking a deep breath. As he walked up familiar steps, the weight on his shoulders grew larger. All that time preparing himself and he was still unsure how to put his request across.

“Be brave. It’s now or never. You definitely won’t be brave enough once mother finds out.”

After what seemed like an eternity of steps, he found himself in front of a grinning Santa and his grumpy-looking elf, who shook his head subtly at him, signaling him to just play along. Santa stretched out his hands and eagerly picked Ignis up, setting him on his lap. He stroked the little boy’s hair and smiled.

“Hohoho! Merry Christmas! If it isn’t young Ignis? My my. And what would a bright dashing young man such as yourself like for Christmas?”

Ignis looked at him with wide eyes. Scared enough as he was, the appearance of the man infront of him disturbed him even more, even more so when his face was right before his.

_This was no time for tears, Scientia. This is IT._

“Merry Christmas. I would like to have my socks back.”

“Socks?”

“Yes, Your Majesty. The socks of mine that His Highness had taken.”

Santa was stunned. He looked to his elf hoping for some help and received nothing more than his ‘what did you expect’ look. “O-oh… ha.. HOHOHO! Majesty? Highness? I don’t know any _Highnesses_! I haven’t got a clue.”

Ignis took a double take, just to be sure.

He looked down at the stairs. It looked awfully familiar to where His Highness had rolled down once.

He looked behind at the elf. The elf looked a lot like Sir Cor who seems to be contemplating on throwing himself down previously said stairs to escape his humiliation.

And unless Santa was fond of treason, that was definitely the King on his throne.

“His Highness. Your Son. Noctis Lucis Cael-.”

“OKAY! You’re getting a BOOK!” King Regis quickly shoved his hand into his giant Santa sack and pulled out a book which he thrusted into the spectacled boy’s chest, “Look! It’s ‘The Animal Farm’! The perfect book for aspiring boy like you! Okay! Bye!”

“But but…”

Ignis’ protest grew softer as his confidence waned. The royal lifted him back down on his feet and gave him a light push on his back, urging him away before getting ready for the next excited child.

“Hohoho! I see young Gladiolus is here! Oh Look how much you have - ooof!”

Oblivious to how much height and weight he had gained during the year, the young Amicitia had jumped onto Santa’s lap as he was barely able to contain his excitement of what he was going to ask Santa for. Regis could only winch, feeling that he might have fractured a femur or two, “I want a big sharp shiny sword!”

“A sword?” Regis asked. He glanced towards the crowd to see his father Clarus carrying his daughter, subtly shaking his head mouthing ‘NO SWORD’. “And what would Little Iris like?”

“She wants a big shield. Not the small buckler. I’ve already got that.”

Just then, Regis felt a tap on his shoulder and heard Cor clearing his throat. He looked up at his elf who nodded to the direction behind him. Confused, Regis turned to find the previous gift recipient, clutching on to his new book, standing at the spot he last left him.

“Socks?”

“No, Ignis. You’ve already gotten your gift.”

“Yeah Scientia, you’ve already gotten yours. It’s _my_ turn now.” the young shield interjected smugly, swinging his legs that were dangling closely to the ground.

Ignis glared at the brunette. To say that he hated him was going too far, but to say that he enjoyed his company would be a lie. The few interactions with Gladiolus did not really sit well with him. The boy might have been the most doting big brother, but he certainly was too unnecessarily rough with the prince.

“You’re getting a Scrabble set.”

Gladiolus’ face turned pale as his eyes darted from Santa’s, Ignis’ and the sack of presents. Before the situation could escalate, Regis instructed Cor who hurriedly sent the younger boy back to floor with the rest of the children.

As soon as Cor had set him back down, Ignis was ready to hike back up the steps when he felt a small familiar tug at his trousers. With programmed reflex, he turned around to find a shorter boy dressed in a red vest sweater smiling sweetly back at him. In that moment, his thoughts cleared and frustration dispelled. He smiled back.

“Merry Christmas, Your Highness.”

Noctis’ face turned serious suddenly, worrying him. Could it be the way he addressed him, Ignis wondered. The prince was known for getting bothered at times when someone addresses him as “Noctis” or “Highness”. As much as Ignis knew that and would have loved to call him ‘Noct’ again, he had been instructed very clearly by his parents in the morning to address him _properly_ after being caught the other day. He was about to apologise and explain when he noticed Noctis hands were cupped in a ball and his eyes were being unusually… shifty.

“Iggy, can you keep a secret? I got these for you.” Noctis uncovered his cupped hands to reveal 3 and a half candy canes, which he quickly started stuffing them into his friend’s side pockets, “Hide it before your mom finds it.”

After stuffing the 3 (and a half) canes, the young royal pulled out more canes from his own pockets to fill up the remaining space which the young advisor tried to discreetly push away. They were sweet, made in the royal kitchen itself and highly popular with the children. They were also banned for poor Ignis who developed persistent coughs. Noctis loved candy canes. But more than anything else, the young royal did not want Ignis to spend the holidays without candy canes. And from the way his best friend looked at every glistening dessert or candy tin, Noctis knew the protests would easily be persuaded.

After a while, King Regis was finally done with his Santa stint. He had never felt the need to get of his throne as much as this and was absolutely glad to change out of the stuffy suit and fake white beard. It was starting to wonder if the suit had been dry cleaned previously and he was almost sure that the beard was giving him a rash. He waved goodbye to the children and in that moment, his heart dropped. His son was nowhere to be seen. And then he noticed that his best friend had also disappeared, which made him give a sigh of relief. This day has certainly been some emotional rollercoaster ride. Speaking of emotional outburst ….

Not even 5 metres from the room, he could already hear children laughter from his son’s room. Gingerly he opened the door to find, as expected, both boys jumping around and playing with what unexpectedly seems like balloons from the main event hall. A LOT of balloons. It took the boys about 20 seconds before realizing that the king had been standing at the doorway wondering how all those balloons got from the event to the room. It was really A LOT of balloons. His son tried very hard to hide the balloon he was holding behind him while the older boy who turned pale.

Regis gestured to the older boy who shifted uncomfortably in his position and, once again, gingerly straightened his clothes before sheepishly following his liege to the far corner, preparing to be reprimanded.

The king knelt down and spoke to him in a hushed tone, away from the prying ears of his curious son.

Noctis stood watchful slowly savouring his candy cane. He started to feel uneasy from the occasional glances towards him, to Ignis hanging his head in shame, to emptying half his pockets of candy. Finally, the king stood up, patted the young boy on his head and sent him out. Noctis gave his friend one final tiny goodbye wave before the doors closed heavy.

Quickly, Noctis ran towards his father as fast as his tiny legs could. Putting on his most remorseful face, his hugged his father’s leg and pleaded, “He didn’t eat any candy, daddy. I’ve only put it in his pocket. I’m sorry”

“Noct, you know Ignis cannot eat any candy for now. More, importantly…” King Regis lifted his son, cradling him as he sat on the sofa near the window, “Do you happen to know where’s Ignis’ socks are?”

“What socks?” Noctis looked at his father before his eyes darted away from his gaze.

_Your Majesty, I’m really sorry for my behavior. I just wanted my socks back before mother gets mad._

“Noct…”

Noctis hesitated for a moment before wriggling out of his father’s grasp and off the seat. He waved to his father and tugged at his hand. Curious as he was, Regis followed and found himself standing before the prince’s wardrobe.

“You have to promise me that you won’t tell Iggy.” With that, the boy pulled the knob of the wardrobe door revealing the most unexpected. Regis’ jaw dropped.

“My word…”

At the floor of the wardrobe lay a mound of socks that were almost as tall as the boy, each either with a different pattern, shade or logo. This was definitely a new with son.

“I keep finding them when I wake up. It’s like my special power.”

_As much as I enjoy taking naps with His Highness, I truly do. But His Highness keeps clutching onto my left sock in his sleep. He wouldn’t wake up nor would he let go. I needed to go home and …_

“A-all these are from Ignis?”

“Yup. Silly Iggy, he keeps losing them,” Noct replied grinning and kicked some of the fallen socks on the rim of the mound back into the heap. He knelt down and started pushing them back into shape like a child with sand into sandcastles. 

“Don’t tell him, I’m safe-keeping them for him.”

**Author's Note:**

> Finally my first posted FFXV fic! Please be gentle.  
> It's been awhile since the idea for this was mentioned in the IgNoct Hotel Server but it's finally in story form! The idea came from Noctis feeling comfort from the scent of Ignis, even if it was just from an article of his clothing.


End file.
